Kinouchi

Marketing yourself- Get it right! By Denise Chilton

How you project yourself may have various impressions.
Always be honest.

What are your impressions of these people?:
Person 1: “ A decorated war hero, a vegetarian, a classical music lover and loves the arts (Hitler)

Person 2: “ Committed acts of vandalism and wanted for various acts of crime. Known for associates with prostitutes (Jesus)
Three adjectives that best describe me: Dedicated, perfectionist, moralistic.
Values are about who you are and why you do something. These develop over time.

Q.   If I were an animal what would I be and why?
A.   A cat.
Q.   What values do you feel resonate with yourself?
A.   Achievement, creativity, decisiveness, honesty, being around people who are open and honest, order (tranquillity, stability, conformity), personal development, purity, religion, truth

Q.   What are my unique selling points (U.S.P)
A.   Perfectionist, meaningful, organised, influences, moralistic, quirkful

Things I need to know about my customer:
Who they are? Why they buy? When they buy? Why from you? What do they do?
Building rapport with our customers is about really listening to people.
A compelling personal brand needs four things:
Compelling to market, authentic, consistent, known

Starting out after graduating in Graphic Design by Gareth Lawn of Vue Creative

Gareth Lawn

Join the Chartered Society of Designers
Get people from studios outside of University to look at your portfolio.
An interesting mailer gets the job. Perhaps a leaflet with your CV on it will work.
In University, we sometimes have a stigma of internalising our contacts to our fellow students and tutors. Speak to people outside!
Don’t e-mail companies but call them. E-mails are very easy to ignore so cold calling is the best option.
Spell check everything! CVs, covering letters, jobs, EVERYTHING!
Make people remember you. Send things out to companies and follow it up with a phone call or even send out newsletters detailing your availability.
Design blogs are excellent sources of inspiration: Dirty Mouse, TypeNeu, Reform & Revolution.

A Career in Design by Steve Rooke

There is a difference between a goal and an objective. You need to think about what you want and how you’re going to get there and also how that will change over time.
Going freelance means you can do things completely your way; the way projects are brought in, briefed in the studio, delivering concepts, invoicing etc.
What do I wish I’d been told?
- You will meet really good people and also some not nice people.
- Time frames will take on a life of their own and run away very quickly.
- Feast or famine. You will never get the amount of work you want to. It also applies for budgets.
- When the job is there it HAS to be done.
- Paying jobs takes precedence over EVERYTHING.
- Never make enemies- always ‘fall out’ on good terms.

First lessons:
- Everyone has an opinion- eve your client’s wife!
- Don’t be too precious about your ‘work of art’! When you think you got it perfect, step back. If that were so we would all be doing and buying the same things! Deal with it.
- Take the brief on board but ask questions.
- Try to understand the end-market.
- Get emotional about the brief. Try to convey the concept of the project rather than the predictable imagery.
- Brainstorm with other people for 20 minutes and include EVERYTHING.
- Doodle, scribble, write.
- Look at the way you present concepts to the client. Everyone uses macs and google images. If you have a presentation board with imagery you don’t have rights to, it will cause problems. Give them a concept visual to buy instead of a finalised visual.
Going a little further:
- Try to learn some base level strategy which will assist marketing and design- SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) PEST (Political, Economical, Social and Technological) analysis.
- Recognise how to build, uphold and maintain brand values.
- The four P’s: Product, Place, Price, Promotion
- Recognise your target market. Are they a ‘Bentley type’ person or a ‘Lidl type’ person? Build that look and feel into your execution.
- Backup your designs with some rationale/reasons explaining why elements are blue/green/placed top left etc.
- Think further ahead to add value to your proposition. Look at their competitors and what they’re doing. A £3000 website is good, but a £1500 website is better. Take a different view. Cater for everyone- from complete beginners to absolute experts without patronising any of them.
- Be up front and honest about your proposal.
- Add value to it.
- Don’t make things regular just for the sake of it e.g. a monthly letter doesn’t have to go out at the first of each month. Make it irregular.

Promoting yourself:
- Think smart. How are you going to be noticed?
- What is your USP? (Unique Selling Point).
- You never get a second opportunity to make a first impression.
- Make every action count; your C.V. HAS to look good.
- Don’t go ‘off the wall’ in a vain attempt to be creative. Very little of what you do will let you be completely creative.
- At the end of the day, they want you to be a businessman as well as a creative.

Your C.V. online:
- Give them what they want!
- View your site through the eyes of a potential employer.
- Get the balance right.
- You need keywords and text in order to optimise your site for Google searches, as well as a good variety of pictures. The BMW site is a good example of this.
- Put in time and effort to your site and keep it that way. Update it!
- Ensure that your site and your work are professional. Show that you are a creative, as well as a professional.
- The HR (Human Resource) person can spy on you anonymously. They will search for you on Google, look at your facebook, look at the design of you C.V. and look for continuity from your work.
- Produce a very short downloadable .pdf of your C.V. with two or three  examples of your work.
Any business arrangement that is not profitable to the other fellow will in the end prove unprofitable for you- i.e. you stitch up one person, they won’t come back to you.
The bargain that yields mutual satisfaction is the only one that is apt to be repeated - (BC Forbes on business).

Graphic Design Tips and Comics by Neil Edwards of Mako

Neil Edwards

With comics, you need to understand anatomy, lighting, pacing.
If you miss a deadline, that client will not use you again. If you’re going to be late, tell them early.
For referencing landscapes/cityscapes, screen grabs of films or television shows are excellent.
On average, 4-5 hours spent per page is good but the editor only expects a page a day.
Use a Wacomb pad with Photoshop, Painter or Manga Studio.
Even if it’s the most tedious, boring project, try and get something creative out of it; Either by how you line something up, font use, colour etc. and that will get you through it.

Marketing yourself and self-promotion by Desdemona McCannon

Desdemona McCannon

Buy 100 Habits of Successful Graphic Designers.
It’s useful to challenge your own practice and find out who you want to work for. You can’t really plan out your career accurately, instead you need to adapt to what comes along as well as the people you meet.
You don’t have to hit the big clients all the time. You cans step back and hit the local markets.
Start a magazine and get a sense of the producing end of the scale. Zines are a good way of self-publishing. Create something of your own that expresses and reflects you.
Low-key works seem to keep your integrity as a designer instead of diluting your ideas for big clients.
Target your publications.
Walk around a book fair and hand out your book designs to publishers.
You’re only going to get work if you get out and make contacts with people through networking. Go to conferences and simply make contact with people who share your interests.
Make friends with people who know a technology you want to learn.
Promoting yourself is more about how confident you are in your aesthetic.

Getting a job in the design and advertising sector by Paul Roberts of JPCreative

JPCreative

The Design Crunch. Agencies are getting smaller and more speacilised. There is a massive influx of Eastern European students looking for work.
The move from print to digital is increasing from 30% to 70% ratio.
Surprise the agency! Give them novel solutions and fresh talent. When you get a placement, use them! Don’t let them use you.

GOLDEN NUGGETS
Tips on lateral thinking:
You need to know you target audience and wow and excite them.
KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). If you throw ten lemons, they will very likely not catch any.
Everyday we are bombarded with material so saying something relevant in an interesting way will cut through that.
Organise selling points wit the most important at the top. Lead with the top-of-the-range product.
Test your message on people.
Work on what to say, not how to say it.
Information sells. Tell people something they don’t know.
Play with words. Build a brand identity or a marketing campaign around a client’s name.
Work in thumbnails before the computer because you will think quicker.
Building brands- take ownership of something.
Disguise your work. Make your work not look like a poster or advert.
When presenting to clients and agencies, play back to them their brief so that they know you have built your presentation on what they have told you. It’s also reassuring to them.
Build up the ‘yes’ response.
Be enthusiastic and passionate about the work and what you’re presenting.
Be surprising.
Don’t settle for the first good idea you have. Challenge yourself to beat your best.

Making Applications and Interview skills by Paul Roberts of JPCreative

JPCreative

When looking for a job, it is useful to find out what kind of person the company are looking for to aim yourself at them.
‘Design Week’ urges students to get out of the design sector whilst the credit crunch is on as there simply aren’t the jobs for them. Don’t get out; stand out! Clients always are going to want cutting edge ideas.
“Being good enough, isn’t enough”.
If you haven’t got a .pdf attached to your CV then forget it! Look at the company’s work and make sure that your work is relevant to them. Make your work fit in. Make sure names are right etc.
Bespoke work for an agency is good. If you are looking for agencies, Design Week is a useful publication to turn to as well as Campaign, Google, Yell. Create a database for yourself.
Find a novel, creative mailer to send to agencies- if you can sell yourself, you can sell anything!
Don’t be afraid to start off at the top.
A digital designer can pick and choose who he’s going to work with as agencies are turning more and more to digital design.
ALWAYS try and reinvent yourself. Create a different look for everything you do.
Try unconventional means to sell yourself. Maybe send out a physical mailer. When writing a letter, aim it towards them.
Maybe get experience at a printers or a repo house.
Every agency is completely different but they share one thing in common- they’re all vain! They all believe that the way in which they do things is better than everyone else’s. Work with that and stroke their ego.
When putting together your portfolio, think real impact. Don’t put too much information on the page. Show that you can actually manufacture and make things in your portfolio. Perhaps a range of 5-6 projects would be ideal.
Interviews
It’s about giving it your best shot. Always go with a few questions. Why would they want to hire junior creatives? Because you get fresh ideas, but mostly because of money! We’re cheaper and have potential to be trained up.
1. Research the company and the job:
What the company does
How many employees do they have, locally and internationally?
Are they part of a larger group?
2. Going to the interview:
They will probably ask why you want to join them.
Be on time
Dress smartly- it shows you’ve made the effort.
3. During the interview, there will most likely be questions like:
What are you strengths and weaknesses? (Turn your weaknesses into a positive)
How do you cope under pressure?
What do you do during quiet periods?
What can you bring to the role?
What interests do you have joining the company?
Be confident and be aware of body language. Be polite; shake hands (very important). If you want the job at the end of the interview, tell them!

Creative Futures

This week is creative futures week in which professionals from outside of the college will come in to speak to us giving their insights of working in the creative industry from real-world practices. From each workshop, I have taken notes which I shall type up to enter here. They are  in very rough, note form and so will not flow as nicely as reading a book but are very useful raw nuggets of information which I have gleaned from the speakers.